The Emergency Alert System (EAS) signaling scheme allows a cable operator to disseminate emergency alert information related to national, state, and local emergencies and warnings in an efficient way. While it is possible for a cable operator to comply with EAS requirements by simply replacing the source signal for all programs with an emergency information channel, such switching may be disruptive to viewing, overly intrusive for many kinds of local warnings, and overly-complex for the cable operator to implement in a digital cable environment where each transport stream may carry many programs that would have to be individually interrupted.